Chapter 2656 Surrender
After receiving Johnny Burgoyne's fiercely worded reply, General Gates was worried that the boiled duck would fly away when the reinforcements from Fiji's side arrived. · Burgoyne's conditions.
After some brief negotiations, the two parties finally reached an agreement:
Armed with cannons and various weapons, and carrying banners, the Fijun army marched from the barracks to a designated place, where they piled up the weapons under the orders of their own officers.
General Gates should allow capitulated enemy officers and men to return to Fiji on condition that they will no longer serve in the New World in the present war.
Fizen officers, including Burgoyne, had to take a public oath to never lead troops into battle, and would then be released to leave the New World with their sidearms and personal possessions.
On the morning of November 16, Johnny Burgoyne signed the instrument of surrender.
At the time of the surrender, Fizen's 4th Infantry Division had been reduced from its full strength of 10,000 when it set off from Midgard to less than 7,000 due to casualties, captures, and desertions.
This was the first time since the start of the war that Fijin had suffered a major defeat.
After this battle, the Continental Army seized hundreds of heavy artillery pieces, nearly 10,000 rifles, and a large number of military supplies such as quilts and tents, which greatly improved the equipment status.
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Although it was General Laval who personally went into battle to command the battle, the nominal supreme commander of the Northern Corps of the Continental Army was General Gates after all. In addition, Laval was seriously injured in the battle and is still lying in the ward. Walking on the ground, it is logical that General Gates has full authority over the surrender of the enemy.
Under the banner of "military emergency", General Gates acted arbitrarily and arbitrarily. He neither discussed with Laval on the hospital bed, nor asked his immediate boss George Vassar for instructions, and negotiated with Johnny Burgoyne. He alone has the final say on the surrender conditions from beginning to end.
On the afternoon of November 17, General Burgoyne led the 4th Infantry Division of Feizhen and surrendered according to the agreement with General Gates.
It was not until the next morning that Johnny Burgoyne's instrument of surrender reached George Vassar.
General Vasa glanced over the conditions of surrender, and was so angry that he couldn't hold back his anger. In front of all his staff, he scolded Charles Gates for being a fool!
"Where in the world has there been such a generous surrender condition, who is the winning side on the battlefield?"
"There are still so many of our soldiers being abused in the POW camp of the Fizhen Army. Charles Gates should at least consider exchanging the prisoners with Burgoyne's men. How could he release all the prisoners so easily!"
"Is this leading soldiers to fight, or playing house?!"
"This is impossible! I absolutely cannot agree to this so-called surrender agreement!"
George Vassar lost his temper, calmed down afterwards, and hurriedly wrote to Gates and Laval. First of all, in the name of the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, he congratulated the two deputies for their great victory in the Baden Wetlands. The key point was to ask them to The suspension of the overly generous surrender agreement signed with Johnny Burgoyne needs to be discussed in the long run.
Of course, Vassar also knew that Charles Gates and Benedict Laval had more senior military experience than himself, and he didn't think much of himself as the commander-in-chief, and he might not take this letter seriously, so he hurriedly sent The "Continental Congress" in Port-Prince issued a letter urging the representatives of the "Continental Congress" to veto the surrender agreement.
In this way, George Vassar was still worried, and sent his trusted adjutant, Major Roger Tyndale, to take his handbook and lead a company of military police to Hot Springs to detain the 4th Infantry Division of Fizen. Prisoners of war, counting confiscated guns and cannon.
The Continental Congress also received news of the Baden victory not long ago, and the attitudes of the representatives were sharply opposed to the fact that Charles Gates signed the surrender agreement with Johnny Burgoyne without asking for instructions.
Some representatives criticized Gates for being too arbitrary. He lacked the most basic respect for the Continental Congress and General Vasa.
For the agreement signed by Gates and Burgoyne, these representatives are also critical, thinking that the conditions are too generous, and the promises made by Burgoyne and others are not binding.
You released the prisoners of war here, and they verbally agreed to return to Feizhen, not to get involved in the conflicts in the New World, to enlist in the army again, and to hit you with a gun. No meat?
On the contrary, more representatives of the Continental Congress praised General Gates.
I think the point is that the Northern Corps won a beautiful victory under the wise leadership of General Gates, and this is the most urgently needed turning point for the independent revolution, which will bring great benefits to the people in the country who are bravely fighting against the Fizen invaders. It is a great encouragement, and more importantly, it shows to the foreign powers who are holding a wait-and-see attitude that the Continental Army is capable of winning battles, and it is worthy of great investment and support from foreign friends.
Victory can cover up all mistakes, not to mention that General Gates didn't make any big mistakes, he just acted in a hurry.
Thinking about it from another angle, if Gates is like a certain commander-in-chief, asking the Continental Congress for instructions on everything, procrastinating, haggling, and lacking courage, how could it be possible to fight such a beautiful ambush?
Leading troops to fight, the most important thing is to be courageous and decisive!
A general who can win battles is a good general. If he can't win battles, no matter how well he obeys the rules, no matter how good his character is, it's useless.
These representatives who support General Gates, in fact, do not want to be drunk. They run on George Vassar's incompetence in governing the army inside and outside. He has been defeated in a row, and the revolutionary cause is about to stop. It is better to put him like this The commander-in-chief withdrew and was replaced by General Gates, who was more capable of fighting tough battles.
War is an extension of politics, and victories and losses on the battlefield in turn intensify political struggles in parliament.
Just when the representatives of the Continental Congress were arguing, General Vasa's letter arrived. In the letter, he proposed to suspend the release of enemy prisoners of war for the exchange of prisoners. No matter which faction the representatives could find fault, In the end, the vote rejected the surrender agreement signed by General Gates and Burgoyne, and asked the Continental Congress to send representatives to renegotiate the terms of surrender.
When this document reached Hot Spring Town, it was too late.
At this time, including Johnny Burgoyne, all the captured senior officers of the 4th Fizen Infantry Division had boarded the ship and returned home, leaving only ordinary soldiers and junior officers still detained in Hot Springs.
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Historical Materials: Contradictions between General Gates and Washington (Hamilton Biography [US] Ron Chernow)
After his victory at Saratoga, Horatio Gates became an overnight national hero and the darling of New England politicians, which only intensified the mutual dislike between him and Washington. After the victory in Saratoga, Gates even put Washington aside and did not inform Washington of the victory at all.
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